Woman gives birth to baby girl using embryo frozen 18 years ago, breaks national record

A woman from Jiangsu has given birth to a healthy baby girl which had been conceived 18 years ago and stored at a Shanghai hospital awaiting implantation.The 45-year-old Huang gave birth to the girl at the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Hospital of Fudan University, breaking the national record for length of time between conception and birth.Chinese media are hailing the girl as “the most frost-resistant baby ever.”The birth of Huang’s baby broke the national record set just two weeks ago by a mother from Guangzhou, capital of southern China Guangdong Province.The 33-year-old woman gave birth to a boy on June 15 using an embryo frozen 12 years ago.Huang is not able to conceive naturally due to a fallopian tube obstruction and so saught out IVF treatment. In 1998 she underwent two frozen embryo transfers and one fresh embryo transfer, but none were successful.After seeing one of her friends get pregnant with twins last year, Huang was inspired to try for a baby again.“Unless there is prior agreement for the disposal of the embryo, the hospital keeps the embryo stores even if the storage fees are long due”, said the manager of the hospital’s embryo laboratory.Another doctor told reporters that the success rate for embryo implantation carried out by the hospital has risen to 43.4 percent from about 30 percent 18 years ago.By Victor Fung[Images via The Paper]